Center for Robotics Software - Mission

Founded in 2017, the Center for Robotics Software in UHCL’s College of Science and
Engineering was conceived during consultation with key members of NASA and the local
community. The center leverages the technical infrastructure that exists between NASA,
academia and industry to identify and solve challenging automation and robotics problems.
The emphasis is on applications of the Robot Operating System to control manufacturing,
mobile and flying robots.

The Center for Robotics Software provides education, research and development and
services in Robot Operating Systems for the greater Houston area. We achieve this
by delivering the following:

Hands-on experience for the local robotics community;

Training sessions for NASA, private businesses and other institutions to fortify and
support increasingly complex software capabilities for robotics projects;

Education that creates skilled graduates who can then develop leading research, capabilities
and products for the ROS community; and

Opportunities for government grants

What is a Robot Operating System?

Robot Operating System software has revolutionized development of robotics software
and applications around the world. Developed at Stanford and released to the public
in 2007, ROS is comprised of software packages for the control, vision and navigation
of robots. Since ROS is open source, the use is not restricted, which means software
packages can be modified to meet a variety of specific applications. It also means
that, if you’re looking to build a robot and a ROS package already exists, you don’t
need to write the software yourself.